


Gehenna: the lost empire

by AlextheAlright



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Alternate Universe - Atlantis: The Lost Empire Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:41:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28321809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlextheAlright/pseuds/AlextheAlright
Summary: Ryuuji's life's dream was to find Gehenna, the lost continent that had sunk below the ocean. Only, he wasn't expecting there to be people, and definitely no ridiculously pretty princes with white hair
Relationships: Okumura Rin/Suguro "Bon" Ryuuji
Comments: 8
Kudos: 24





	Gehenna: the lost empire

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TongueTiedRaven](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TongueTiedRaven/gifts).



Gehenna was one of the world’s most advanced nations, having an unrivaled power source that accomplished the impossible, from making its citizens immortal to powering the huge city.  
Of course, Rin remembered none of his home country at its prime, as he was just a child, but he did remember its fall.

  
“Rin! Yukio! Come on!”

  
Rin did not understand what was going on. One second, he was playing a game with his brother and the other children, and the next his mother was pulling him away towards the city centre. The sound of screaming was so deafening, the sirens and gongs were barely audible above it and people were running around, crying and calling out names of their children. His feet hurt, but his mother didn’t let his arm go, even when he stumbled. She just lifted him up by his arm, not even pausing to check if he was fine.

  
“Mom, stop, you’re hurting me!” he cried, tears springing to his eyes.

  
She ignored him. If anything, she ran faster, tightening her grip around his wrist. Rin whimpered. He was scared. Mom never hurt him like this. She always kissed his bruises away and told him she would protect him, she didn’t do this.

  
“Stop it! He said you’re hurting him!”

  
She finally stopped when Yukio wrenched his arm out of her hand, trying to pull her away from his brother. Rin sobbed, clutching his hand that was already red where his mother was clutching it. He didn’t understand anything. He wanted to go back to his room with his brother. He wanted his mom to go back to the way she was before everyone started running around. He wanted his dad, and he wanted everything to stop being so loud.

  
“There’s no time for this! We have to go, n-”

  
She stopped abruptly, and Rin frowned.

  
“Mom?” Yukio asked.

  
For the first time in their life, their mother ignored them, a look of absolute horror on her face. Rin didn’t like the look on her face. His mom was brave, she chased away the monsters under the bed and wasn’t scared of the dark. If there was something that scared her, Rin didn’t want to know what it was. He tugged on her skirt, but she didn’t respond.

  
“Mom? Mom!”

  
Suddenly, there was a bright light, and his mother was floating away.

  
“Mom!”

  
He tried to reach for her, but she was too far. His breathing grew desperate, and hot tears ran down his face as he screamed himself hoarse. No, no no no no. His mom can’t leave. He needed her. They all needed her.

  
“Yuri!”

  
There was a bright light, and suddenly, he was enveloped in someone’s arms, and his head was tucked into someone's chest, knocking against Yukio’s.

  
“Don’t look!”

  
He recognized the rough stubble rubbing against his head and the scent of cigarettes as his father’s, but it didn’t ease his panic, and neither did his brother’s hand clutching his.  
When he was finally allowed to look up, the afternoon sun was gone, and so was his mother.  
Gehenna had sunk below the ocean.

“And this is why I believe the real location of the Shepherd's journal is Iceland,” Ryuuji finished, pointing at the map behind him.

  
Though the audience before him was just dummies and less valuable museum artifacts, he couldn’t help the rush going through his veins. This coming presentation would make or break his career and decide his future.  
“Gentlemen, I’ll be taking your questions n-”

  
The phone rang, because of course it did. He rolled his eyes, putting down his piece of chalk as he walked around the portable board.

  
“Yes? Yeah, sure. I’ll do it, just a second.”

  
Sighing, he walked over to the other side of the room, where his “audience” was sitting.

  
“Excuse me, ma’am.” He pushed over one of the masks and went over the familiar motions of kicking the boiler into working. He knew that most cartographer linguists didn’t have to fix boilers, and he gritted his teeth against the reminder that he had no choice but to do this. At least it paid the bills, and he got to do the thing he loved most, so it wasn’t as bad as it could be, though he could do without having to serve as a part time mechanic.

  
“Is that better? Okay, no problem.”

  
He put the phone receiver back, just in time for his clock to start chiming. Taking a deep breath, he picked up his scrolls.

  
Alright, now was the time. He mentally went over his notes, and made sure he had all the scrolls he needed. It would be embarrassing to have his whole point undermined by one of the documents being missing.  
All the way to the meeting hall, he revised the main points of his presentation. Gehenna was said to exist nearly 10 thousand years ago, yet evidence shows that it had a massive power source, more efficient than even today’s internal combustion engines. Then the shield, the correct translation of the letter, and finally the map.  
By the time he reached the meeting room, he had gone over it two more times.

  
“Alright, Ryuuji,” he said, gulping nervously and shuffling the scrolls so he could open the door, “It’s time, you can do this.”

  
He took two more deep breaths before he opened the door, only to find...nothing.  
The room was empty, save for one person.

  
“Umm, excuse me?” Ryuuji asked.

  
The man jerked awake, looking at him with wide eyes, “What?”

  
Almost immediately, Ryuuji recognized him. Not many people didn’t know Lewin Light, and he was a hard person to forget, especially not with the way he smelled like he didn’t bathe in a week.

  
“Wasn’t there a meeting here?” he said, trying to not let his nose scrunch up too much in disgust. He really hoped he came to the wrong room.

  
“Nope!” the man said, now stretching, “you’re late, the meeting was moved up to 3:30, it’s already over.”  
Ryuuji was sure there was a mistake somewhere. He had checked the letter twelve times today alone, and he was pretty sure it said the meeting was at 4:30.

  
“But...but the letter I was given said it would be at 4:30.”

  
“Yeah, but it was moved up. Sorry kid, meeting’s over, and since you weren’t there, the board decided to reject your proposal.”

  
“What?”

  
No, no no, this wasn’t happening. Ryuuji had spent the last 3 years of his life working on this. He had put up with the stupid boilers and the cramped room for this. He left his home for this. They couldn’t just reject his proposal without hearing it.

  
“They can’t...they can’t do this…”

  
Light shrugged, but for a second, Ryuuji thought he was grinning, almost like he knew something Ryuuji didn’t.  
“Better luck next time, kid,” he said, patting his shoulder on the way out.

  
This was officially the worst day of his life.

  
Of course, the sky decided now would be a good time to rain.

  
By the time he reached his cramped apartment, Ryuuji was ready to kill someone.

  
He opened the door, kicking it shut behind him and taking off his soaked shoes. The electricity was also out, apparently. Part of him thought it was the universe deciding to make his bad day even worse, but the more rational part reminded him that it was likely a result of the rainstorm he had just walked through.  
He decided to listen to the angrier part.

  
The wall was fine after he finished punching it, of course, but he might have to apologise to the neighbours for some of the more colorful words he had screamed.

  
“Ryuuji Suguro?”

  
Ryuuji jumped, turning around to see where the voice came from. He was greeted with the sight of a woman sitting on his armchair, legs crossed.

  
“Who the fuck are you? And how did you get in here?”

  
If his mother had been there, she would’ve pulled his ear off for swearing in front of a lady. His chest ached at the reminder than he hadn't seen her in several years, but he told himself it didn’t matter. Torako wasn’t here, she was back home, and he was going back to her soon.

  
For now, he would deal with this stranger.

  
She was tall, wearing a dress that accentuated her figure. Any hope Ryuuji had for liking girls vanished. If she didn’t interest him, no other woman would. Her sharp eyes scanned the apartment, occasionally lingering on a stack of books. Finally, she looked back at him with her unsettling pink eyes.

  
“My name is Shura Kirigakure, and my employer has a proposition that will interest you.”

  
He frowned. “Who’s your employer?”

Her employer was obscenely rich, judging by the huge metal gates they just drove through. Not even the sound of rainfall could drown out his heartbeat. They stepped out of the car and into the foyer, and if Ryuuji wasn’t convinced this mysterious “employer” was a millionaire, he was now.

  
“You will address him as Mr. Pheles or Sir, keep your sentences short and to the point,” Shura said, closing the elevator doors behind them, “Don’t waste time, and Relax, he doesn’t bite...much.”

  
He ignored her amused grin and opened the elevator doors when they stopped.

  
He will not make an idiot out of himself. He will speak to this guy, go home, and maybe have some curry for comfort. He will not nerd out about the ceiling high bookshelves, and he will not stop to look at the artifacts lining the wall. He is an adult, goddamn it, and he will keep whatever was left of his dignity.  
Then, he saw him.

  
The first thing Ryuuji thought of when he saw the man was that he was strange. From the bright color of his hair to the one curl that stood up, to the strange robe he was wearing and the blue ring he wore.

  
“Uh, Sir?”

  
“Suguro, right? Mephisto Pheles, nice to meet you. Care to join me?”

“No thanks...sir.”

  
Ryuuji was not confident in his ability to...do whatever it was he was doing. He twisted his waist again, and Ryuuji winced as something cracked loudly. No, thank you very much, he liked his spine intact.

  
“Suit yourself,” Mephisto replied, then, as he didn’t have company, he continued to stretch, a few more of his more straining exercises making Ryuuji cringe.

  
A minute passed, then two, then five. Ryuuji was not an impatient man by nature, but after the day he’d had, he doubted anyone would blame him.

  
“Mr. Pheles, why is it exactly that you called me here?”

  
“Impatient, are we?”

  
Ryuuji fought the urge to roll his eyes and counted backwards from 10 mentally. He will not punch the man, he didn’t even know why he was here yet, and he already burned enough bridges today.

  
“Look on the table, Mr. Suguro, I think you’ll find something that will interest you.”

  
Immediately, Ryuuji turned to the table, finding a wrapped package on it. He began to unwrap it, ready to get whatever this was over with and go home, but stopped when he saw the cover of what was apparently a book.

  
“This...this is impossible. This is…”

  
“The shepherd’s journal,” Mephisto finished, now finally on his feet, “the guide to the missing continent of Gehenna.”

  
Ryuuji couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked and pinched himself, but a sharp pain went up his thigh, and the world didn’t fade around him. He was not dreaming.

  
“Ow,” he muttered numbly.

  
“Do you know what this means, Mr. Suguro?”

  
This means, everything. This means his research wasn’t for nothing. This means he had somewhere to begin, This means he was right.

“This means...I can convince the museum to fund an expedition!”

  
His heart felt light, and breathing, which was almost a chore a few minutes ago, was now easy. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. He wanted to set the world on fire just so he could build it back up by himself because he was right, and nothing would ever bring him down.

  
“They won’t believe you.”

  
Ryuuji felt like he was dunked in cold water. He knew the idiots at the museum wouldn’t believe him if he took them to Gehenna himself, but he needed their funding, and for one glorious second, he forgot how stingy they were.

  
No.

  
He won’t think that way.

He needed to try again.

  
“I’ll...I’ll convince them.”

  
“Like you did today?”

  
“Ye-No! You know what I mean.”

  
Ryuuji hated Mephisto more and more every time he opened his mouth. He would convince them, goddamn it, he would find a way. He just had to figure something out. Maybe...maybe if he studied the book he would find some proof they haven’t heard yet. Yes, that was it, he just had to work harder. He just had to-

  
“No, but what I do know is that they’ll never fund it,” he replied, with an amused smirk. Ryuuji wanted to smack it right off his face, and he felt his blood pressure rise by the second.

  
“I will find Gehenna, if I have to rent a rowboat and swim the rest of the way myself!”

  
The amused smirk grew, and Ryuuji had his fist halfway drawn back when Mephisto spoke.

  
“That’s exactly what I wanted to hear,” he said, “but forget the row boat, you’re travelling first class.”  
He pressed a button on the table, and suddenly, a submarine model was there, and Ryuuji was filled with questions. What? How? When? Where? And who was funding it.

  
“I have already gathered a crew. Geologists, engineers, all you need. We set out tomorrow.”

  
“What?” he replied intelligently.

  
“Your expedition, Mr. Suguro,” Mephisto replied, ”I thought you needed a sponsor?”

  
“I...what...why?”

  
“Well, you could say I...owe someone a favor.” He punctuated the sentence with a sharp grin, and Ryuuji felt a shudder run down his spine, and not the good kind. Mephisto was handsome, sure, but it was in an unsettling way, as if he wasn’t of this world.

  
Ryuuji took a deep breath, then stood up. It didn’t matter why he was helping him. What matters was the book in his hands and the promise he was given. He had a lot of things to do, after all. Packing his clothes, putting his books in storage, and signing his resignation.

  
When he reached the door, he paused. Mephisto had just paid the equivalent of millions of dollars for this expedition. It was one of two things, either he was careless with his money, which didn’t seem likely judging by the size of the mansion, or he had a reason to believe this expedition would succeed. In both cases, he owed the man his gratitude.

  
“Sir?”

  
Mephisto hummed in acknowledgement.

  
“Thank you, for all of this.”

  
The sharp grin returned, and Ryuuji felt like something was crawling across his skin. Every instinct told him to run and never return. He ignored them all, pasting on a polite smile.

  
“You’re welcome.”

  
He nodded, before pulling open the elevator doors.

  
“And Mr. Suguro?”

  
Ryuuji turned, one foot in the elevator.

  
“The journal was in Iceland.”

**Author's Note:**

> Merry christmas, Abla Chelle! this was supposed to be way shorter, maybe one or two scenes, but you're rubbing off on me so it'll probably be 3 chapters or so.  
> love you! and I hope you have a christmas as awesome as you are!


End file.
